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Stutzman vying for a leadership slot

Indiana Rep. Marlin Stutzman, who got punished last year for defying House leaders, is now hoping to grab the No. 3 GOP job in the House leadership shakeup sparked by Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s surprise defeat in his Tuesday primary.

WASHINGTON – Indiana Rep. Marlin Stutzman, who got punished last year for defying House leaders, is now hoping to grab the No. 3 GOP job in the House leadership shakeup sparked by Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s surprise defeat in his Tuesday primary.

The Howe Republican is one of three people running for majority whip.

The current whip, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, is running to replace Cantor, R-Va., as majority leader.

Stutzman did not respond to an interview request.

Lawmakers have only a week to campaign before the June 19 election. The short duration is intended to head off bitter and divisive campaigns within the raucous GOP caucus.

“This is a time for unity,” Boehner said Thursday.

The majority whip is responsible for mobilizing Republican House members to vote with leadership on major issues. The post is seen as a springboard for election to a higher leadership position — majority leader or the No. 1 post of House speaker.

Stutzman, who represents the state’s most Republican district, was a lower-level member of the whip team until he crossed leadership last year on a procedural vote on an agriculture and nutrition assistance bill.

Stutzman had wanted the agriculture subsidies portion of the bill to be voted on separately from the part that funds food stamps. When that didn’t happen, he opposed the GOP-written rule for bringing the bill up for debate.

House leaders took him off the vote-counting team as a result.

David Wasserman, who analyzes the House for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said Stutzman brings the “agitator wing” of the GOP to the race.

“The question is how many of those agitators he can bring with him,” Wasserman said. “I don’t see him as a frontrunner.”

The other candidates for majority whip are Illinois Rep. Peter Roskam, who is the chief deputy whip, and Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, who runs a conservative faction of lawmakers called the Republican Study Committee.

The conservative blog RedState.com reported that Scalise “gave conservatives pause” when, after becoming head of the committee, he “acquiesced to a GOP leadership-instigated purge of conservatives from key congressional committees.”

Stutzman has a slightly more conservative ranking than Scalise from the Club for Growth and Heritage Action, two of the conservative groups that have urged Republicans to take a tougher stance on issues, rather than trying to reach agreements with Democrats.

Roskam is ranked much lower than either Stutzman or Scalise by those groups.

Both groups had opposed efforts to end the partial government shutdown and the impasse over the federal debt limit last year.

During the impasse, Stutzman had to back off a statement he made that drew national attention -- and not in a good way. Stutzman said that Republicans needed to “get something out of” the shutdown, adding: “I don’t know what that even is.”

Even if Stutzman falls short in his bid, running can raise his profile.

“This may not be the last leadership shakeup that we see in the next couple years,” Wasserman said.

And if Scalise wins the majority whip race, Stutzman could vie to succeed him as head of the Republican Study Committee.

Although he was elected in 2010, Stutzman, 37, has served the longest of any GOP House member from Indiana.

The last Hoosier to be in the GOP leadership was Gov. Mike Pence, who was in the slot right behind whip — conference chair — before stepping down in preparation for his gubernatorial bid.